Pakistan tightens French consulate security, Jamaat-e-Islami calls for 1mn march

The police have put up containers, erected cement blocks and deployed at least a dozen patrol vans near the consulate. (AP)

Pakistan today beefed up security outside all foreign consulates here amid calls by rightwing groups for bigger demonstrations on Friday, a day after four persons were injured in violent protests over the publication of an “un-Islamic” cartoon by a French satirical weekly.

Far-right Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) group said it will bring together one million people on the streets on Friday to protest against ‘Charlie Hebdo’, which re-published a controversial sketch on Wednesday after it was attacked by two Islamist gunmen last week that left 12 people dead.

JI chief Sirajul Haq yesterday announced the rally to denounce the publication of Prophet Muhammad’s cartoon, considered un-Islamic by Muslims.

Hafiz Saeed, the chief of Jamaat-ud-Dawa – a wing of the banned Lashkar-e-Taiba which masterminded the 2008 attacks in Mumbai – has announced another protest for tomorrow in Lahore.

In view of the calls given by the rightwing religious groups, police have stepped up security outside all foreign consulates, including the French consulate — the scene of violent protests yesterday in which an AFP photojournalist and three others were injured.

The police have put up containers, erected cement blocks and deployed at least a dozen patrol vans near the consulate.